Maybe This Time
by ber1719
Summary: Yes it should have been simple that Kurt, her best friend, wanted to talk to her. But it wasn't. Not anymore. A Kurt/Mercedes friendship story. Please R


"**Maybe This Time"**

**(A Glee One-Shot)**

Mercedes Jones stared absently at the glowing screen of her cell phone. She couldn't have said for sure how long she had been sitting in this exact position with the phone grasped like a life line in her strained fingers. It was simple really. Or it should have been. But her fear. God, her fear was eating her alive. And it was preventing her from hitting the "reply" button and telling Kurt that he needed to get his scrawny behind over to her house immediately for some girl talk.

Those four little words had sufficiently knocked her for a loop, a task which had never been easy with her. Words that only a few weeks ago she would have jumped for joy to hear. Words that now had her chest captured in a suffocating vice.

Yes it should have been simple that Kurt, her best friend, wanted to talk to her. But it wasn't. Not anymore. Not after everything that had gone down over the three months. She knew exactly how it had all started, too. All the tension, all the hurt, all the _pulling away_. Karofsky. The stupid, white boy jock that had had the audacity to push her best friend around. The boy who had threatened to kill the person that Mercedes cared the most about in the whole world. And the same boy who had made _her _realize how stupid _she _had been.

"_I'm sorry, I have to go," _Kurt had said. In that meek, entreating, quiet way of his. And it had broken her heart. Because she hadn't seen it coming at all. She hadn't realized at all just _how bad_ the situation with Karofsky had gotten for him. Guilt suddenly tore at her insides anew as she remembered the emotions that had begun to crawl, hot and uncomfortable, along her skin that day. So many things had been said. So many things had been left unsaid. It hurt to even think about, but she knew there was no point in trying to stave off the flow of memories into her mind.

_She'd called him as soon as she got out of Glee rehearsal. He had picked up on the second ring. His voice was hoarse, from crying she guessed. And she could clearly imagine his blood-shot eyes, red-tipped nose, and tear stained cheeks. _

"_Kurt, we need to talk," she'd stated simply. She could already feel the tears stinging the backs of her eyes, but she bit her lip hard to stop them before they rose any further. _

"_Cedes, you're not going to convince me to stay."_

"_Boy, I love you, but you're not thinking clearly. Like Puck said, we can walk you to class. We can go to the school board and ask them to look at the case again. Please, Kurt, just don't do this. Don't leave us," Mercedes had whispered into her cell phone. She knew they both could hear what she was really saying to him. She didn't want him to leave her. They were best friends after all. Who would she have now? Quinn had been great when she'd been pregnant, but now...now she was at the top of her game again and almost as self-centered as she'd been before all the baby drama had started. _

He hadn't had anything to say to her request and Mercedes, the person who had always known him better than anyone, had apologized for pushing him because that was what she was supposed to say. She hadn't meant it at all, but he didn't need to know that she reasoned. Then they had said their goodbyes and had hung up their respective phones.

She had spent the next three hours crying into the pillow that she was clutching fiercely to her chest. She had tried to pour all her guilt into those tears. The guilt she felt for not loving her friend enough to let him go. The guilt she felt for not knowing that would _need _to let him go in the first place.

That day, something had broken within her. She knew that things between her and Kurt couldn't ever be the same. She knew that Kurt would never blame her for not noticing, for not just knowing that he'd needed her help, but _she _blamed herself. She was the worst friend in the world and in some way, she could understand completely why Kurt would want to go to Dalton Academy. On the other hand, though, she was selfish enough to have asked him to stay.

_So what should I do? _She asked herself, clutching the phone even tighter. She would never know if it was an act of God or just a coincidence, but it was in that moment that her phone started to ring. The lyrics of "4 Minutes" blasting noisily through her bedroom. She smiled knowingly and this time, she didn't hesitate in answering her phone.

Lifting the phone to her ear, she didn't expect to hear sobs greeting her on the other end. She didn't expect to feel so heartbroken and lost when his voice, hoarse once again from crying, muttered in her ear the words that would pull them back together again.

"Cedes?"

"Yeah, Kurt?" she whispered, tears rushing to the surface of her eyes at once.

"I'm, I really need a friend right now. I st-stopped at Rachel's and she invited me over for the night. Would you, do you want to drop by? We could p-pop in a few movies and gorge ourselves on that Fudge Chocolate Ice Cream you like so m-much," Kurt said. Mercedes could tell that he was really trying. Truly trying to show her that the last three months – of not talking, texting, and _being friends _every moment of every day _–_ did not matter anymore. She knew that what he was really trying to say was, can we just pretend that the last three months never happened? She was ready to jump up and down for joy. She was ready to rush out of her house without so much as a goodbye to her parents. But of course, in true Mercedes Jones fashion, she couldn't let the situation off without a bang and a laugh.

"So, we're friends with Rachel now?" she asked, keeping her tone light and teasing. She knew that something between Rachel and Kurt had changed. Since they were no longer competing for the same solos in New Directions.

For the first time in a while, Mercedes heard Kurt laugh. Not his nervous, "I'm trying really hard to be funny right now," laugh. The laugh that always made her stomach tighten because she had no choice but to laugh with him. The sound was so joyful, so infectious.

"Yeah, Cedes, we're friends with Rachel now," Kurt said through his laughter. From the other end, Mercedes heard a loud huff and then the sound of a pillow collided with something solid.

"Should I get over there before she messes up your hair too much?"

"Well, it already looks like crap, but yeah that would be nice," Kurt replied quietly. Mercedes smiled in turn, feeling her insides squirm at the chance to be with her best friend again. And who knew, maybe Rachel might actually be alright. For a competitive, sometimes snooty, diva.

"Okay, Kurt, I'm on my way," she whispered before hanging up her phone and throwing it thoughtlessly on her bed. Turning towards her closet, she grabbed the first bag she saw and threw some clothes into it. Hoping all the while that this would be a turning point. A point where she wouldn't feel so guilty for everything that had happened. A point where just maybe, she wouldn't feel so lost without the only person who knew her better than she knew herself.

**Okay, so kind of a lame ending, but I hope that you won't hold that against me. :) I was really inspired after reading about fifteen Kurt/Mercedes one-shots over the course of the last two days. And a lot of them end rather depressingly, although all of them were absolutely INCREDIBLE! So, I decided to post this as sort of a happy alternative to all of those lol. I just hope that it measures up in even the smallest way. Please review and tell me how you liked it! I can't wait to hear what you guys think. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Glee. That honor is reserved for Ryan Murphy alone. I do, however, own the first season of Glee which I have been watching religiously since I bought it. **


End file.
